Tech Stream

Game Connect Asia Pacific 2009

8 December 2009

The puzzle game Blakely Van De Buckle’s Brass Cabaret being played in the Independent Gamers Exhibition at GCAP 2009. The game was produced by Powderkeg Entertainment.

I’m spending the beginning of this week at a gaming conference and expo in Melbourne. Game Connect: Asia Pacific (GCAP) is organised by the Game Developers’ Association of Australia (GDAA) and is an opportunity for people working in the gaming and interactive entertainment industry to network, share some new ideas and discuss some of the issues they’re facing.   There has also been a focus on serious games, with education and health featuring heavily as themes on day one.

The GDAA Industry Awards took place at the end of day two and not surprisingly the runway smash Flight Control picked up a string of awards including “Best Game”.  Firemint’s popular game for the iPhone and iPod Touch mobile platform has been downloaded from the iTunes App Store more than 1.5 million times.  The President of the GDAA, Tom Crago, noted that “Flight Control has been a phenomenal success and has really been responsible for the creation of an entire new genre on iPhone. We’re very proud that this title was developed in Australia”.  Heroes Over Europe from Transmission Games (which is no longer operating having closed down in October) also picked up three awards, including “Best Console Title”.

The Tech Stream program on Friday will be devoted to gaming and coverage of Game Connect: Asia Pacific 2009.  Make sure you tune in, or subscribe to the podcast to hear it.  In the meantime Mike Bantick has some good coverage over at iTWire, including an overview of the event and a story on the student produced games on show at GCAP.

I’ve also been asking people at the conference what their favourite game of 2009 was.  What’s yours?